JOURNAL OF SPORT & EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY, 1995,17,294-311

O 1995 Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc.

Motivational Climate, Psychological Responses,

and Motor Skill Development in Children's Sport:
A Field-Based Intervention Study
Marc Theeboom and Paul De Knop

Maureen R. Weiss

Free University of Brussels, Belgium

University of Oregon

Recent research in educational psychology suggests that provision of a mastery motivational climate will maximize enjoyment, perceived competence,
and intrinsic motivation in children (Arnes, 1992a, 1992b, 1992~).Minimal
research has been conducted to test this proposition in the physical domain.
The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a performance
versus mastery oriented teaching program on children's enjoyment, perceived
competence, intrinsic motivation, and motor skill development. Children (N =
119) 8 to 12 years of age were randomly assigned to one of the two programs
for 3 weeks during an organized sports program. Results revealed that children
in the mastery oriented group reported significantly higher levels of enjoyment and exhibited better motor skills than those in the performance oriented
group. In-depth interviews further indicated that children in the mastery
program were almost unanimous in reporting high levels of perceived competence and intrinsic motivation, while those from the traditional group showed
less pronounced effects. These results provide empirical evidence that a
mastery motivational climate can result in more positive experiences for
young athletes as they learn new skills.
Key words: children, motivation, intervention

Since the 1970s, sport scientists have wanted to learn more about the
motives of sport participants (Weiss & Chaumeton, 1992). While most of the
early sport participation motivation studies had a descriptive and atheoretical
character, in recent years a more theoretical slant has been adopted toward the
study of motivation in children's sport. Two particular theories, developed in
the academic domain, have attracted the attention of youth sport researchers:
competence motivation theory (Harter, 1978) and achievement goal theory (Nicholls, 1984, 1989). According to Harter, individuals who perceive themselves
high in competence and internal control in an achievement area will be more
M. Theeboom and P. De Knop are with the Faculty of Human Movement and
Sport Sciences at the Free University of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium. M. Weiss is with
the Dept. of Exercise and Movement Science, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403.

Motor Skill Development / 295

intrinsically motivated to remain involved and exert effort, and will experience
more positive affect than individuals lower on these characteristics.
Harter's (1978) competencemotivation theory has been supportedby empirical studies in the physical achievement domain (e.g., Brustad, 1988; Brustad &
Weiss, 1987; Weiss & Horn, 1990). Among the aspects that have been investigated
within Harter's theory are antecedents and consequences of positive and negative
affect in sport. For example, studies have provided support for the importance
of socialization influences on children's affective outcomes in sport (Brustad,
1988, 1993; Brustad & Weiss, 1987).
The construct of competence is also a key element in Nicholls' (1984,
1989) achievement goal theory. According to Nicholls, individuals are motivated
to demonstrate high ability and avoid showing low ability. The essential twist
in Nicholls' theory is that individuals may conceive their ability on the basis of
two types of goals. For some, success is evaluated through norm-referenced
means (e.g., social comparison), while others consider competence to be a consequence of self-referenced goals (e.g., personal improvement). Several researchers
have labeled these goal orientations, with the norm-referenced focus termed ego
(Nicholls, 1984), performance (Dweck, 1986), and ability (Ames, 1992a) goals.
The self-referenced orientation has been labeled task (Nicholls, 1984), learning
(Dweck, 1986), and mastery (Ames, 1992a) goals.
Ames (1992a) argues that children are more likely to exhibit a positive
motivational pattern when they adopt a mastery goal orientation. According to
achievement goal theory, mastery oriented individuals emphasize the importance
of effort in an achievement context, try hard in the face of difficult challenges,
show intrinsic interest in the task at hand, and persist in the task over time (Roberts,
1992; Roberts & Treasure, 1992). In contrast, ability oriented individuals are
concerned with being judged as better skilled than others or being able to succeed
with little effort (Ames, 1992a). High ability oriented individuals with high
perceived competence, like their mastery oriented counterparts, will choose challenging tasks as long as they have a chance of succeeding. However, high ability
oriented individuals with low perceptions of competence are expected to choose
tasks that are too easy, or too hard, in order to avoid optimal challenges. They
are also characterized by low effort, lack of persistence, and deteriorating performance over time (Dweck, 1986).
Several authors have called for research that explores ways to create a
mastery motivational climate when working with youngsters, so as to maximize
the benefits available in such achievement settings (Duda, 1992; Roberts, 1992;
Roberts & Treasure, 1992). In the academic domain, Ames (1992a, 1992b, 1992c)
was one of the first to conduct intervention research on enhancing a mastery
goal orientation in the classroom. She developed an intervention plan based on
six dimensions of the classroom learning environment. These dimensions were
initially identified and described by Epstein (1989): task (design of learning
activities), authority (location of decision-making), recognition (use of incentives), grouping (individual vs. cooperative work), evaluation (use of feedback),
and time (pace of instruction). These dimensions form the acronym TARGET.
Each of these TARGET areas has been translated into motivational strategies
that can be implemented in the classroom.
Ames (1992~)also compiled specific techniques and actual instructional
practices to operationalize these principles. Her study was aimed at investigating

'

296 / Theeboom, De Knop, and Weiss

the influence of instructionalpractices and teacher behaviors on elementary school

children who were motivationally and academically at risk. The effects of the
intervention were assessed by comparing students in the treatment (i.e., mastery
oriented) and control classrooms on intrinsic motivation, self-concept of ability,
attitudes, and perceived competence. Results indicated that the motivational climate in the intervention classrooms was significantly affected by changes in the
teachers' strategies. By the end of the semester, scores on measures of intrinsic
motivation and~attitudeswere more vositive for students in the treatment classrooms than for those in the control classrooms.
The TARGET dimensions offer a strong basic conceptual structure for
systematizing the various strategies recommended by youth sport researchers. In
general, the task, grouping, and time dimensions can be regarded as elements
of instructional organization, while the authority, recognition, and evaluation
dimensions can be considered examples of teacher behaviors toward students.
Although these dimensions refer to the academic learning environment, they can
apply to the youth sport "classroom" because, as argued by Ames (1992b), sport
and academic settings share many structural features. Both environments are
characterized by adult-defined authority and reward structures. Also, they are
both based on ability grouping, normative and social comparisons, and public
individual performance. One difference between them is that children can drop
out of sport. Another difference is that children's performance in the athletic
domain is more visible and vulnerable to the evaluations of significant others.
Research investigating the motivational effects of a mastery oriented approach has not been extended to a youth sport setting (Roberts, 1992; Roberts &
Treasure, 1992). However, two empirical studies have recently examined correlates of a mastery motivational climate in the sport setting. Seifriz, Duda, and
Chi (1992) developed a sport-specific measure of perceived motivational climate
and investigated its relationship to intrinsic motivation and beliefs about the
causes of success in sport. Results revealed a significant positive relationship
between perceptions of a mastery oriented climate with enjoyment and intrinsic
motivation. Walling, Duda, and Chi (1993) provided evidence of construct and
predictive validity of Seifriz et al.'s measure of motivationalclimate. Among other
things, results indicated that perceptions of a mastery climate were associated with
greater perceived effort, higher levels of enjoyment, and greater team satisfaction.
In contrast, perceptions of a performance climate were positively associated with
greater worry and less team satisfaction.
Duda (1992) has recommended that studies should implement and test the
practical implicationsof achievement goal theory in real-life sport settings. Based
on the assumption that a mastery motivational climate will maximize enjoyment,
perceived competence, and intrinsic motivation in children, we attempted in the
present study to construct a youth sport teaching program that took into account
the motivational strategies implied from contemporary theory and research. In
order to compare performance and mastery oriented instructional strategies, such
as in Ames' (1992b) study, the sport of wushu from the Chinese martial arts
was selected as the target activity. Wushu is considered the basis of most Asian
martial arts. It comprises a variety of defensive techniques that are performed
either unarmed or with weapons.
Thus, based on previous theory and empirical research, the purpose of this
study was to compare the effects of a traditional (e.g., performance oriented)

Motor Skill Development / 297

and mastery oriented wushu teaching program on participants' psychological
responses and motor skill development. It was hypothesized that students in the
mastery program, compared to those in the traditional program, would experience
greater enjoyment, higher perceived physical competence, and higher levels of
intrinsic motivation (i.e., challenge, curiosity, mastery). Because no information
was available on the influence of a mastery oriented teaching program on motor
skill development, no hypothesis was forwarded for this aspect of the program.

Method
Participants and Design
Participants originally included 102 boys and 67 girls in a 6-week university
sponsored summer sports program. The program provided children with instruction in a variety of team (baseball, basketball, soccer) and individual (swimming,
wrestling, martial arts, track and field ) sports daily or every other day. Thus the
program offered a unique opportunity to study the research questions in a realworld setting. That is, all children were expected to participate in martial arts
and the other sports as part of the normal sports program routine; for the present
study, two types of instructional programs were adopted for the martial arts
classes.
It was decided that children missing 3 or more days of class would be
excluded from all analyses. Thus the final sample size consisted of 119participants
(73 boys, 46 girls) who ranged in age from 8 to 12 years (M = 9.7, SD = 1.2)
and in grade level from 2nd to 5th grades. Within each grade level, participants
were randomly assigned to the mastery (n = 51; 35 boys, 16 girls) or traditional
(n = 68; 38 boys, 30 girls) wushu teaching programs.' During the first 3 weeks
of the program the mastery group received instruction in wushu; from the 4th
week onward this group went on to wrestling while the traditional group, which
had followed wrestling from the beginning of the camp, was then introduced to
the wushu instructional program.
Measures were administered before and after the intervention phase of the
study. The independent variable was the teaching program (mastery, traditional).
The dependent variables included levels of self-reported enjoyment, perceived
physical competence, intrinsic motivation, and motor skill development. As
wushu is fairly unknown in the West, it was expected that none of the children
had had any experience with it. Therefore the preintervention measures referred
to sport in general while the postintervention measures were worded specific to
the sport of wushu.

Teaching Programs
Similar to Ames' research in the classroom (1992b), we implemented a
three-step procedure for examining the effects of motivational climate on children's motivation and motor development. The first step was identifying general
strategies that were consistent with mastery and performance oriented climates
along the six dimensions of TARGET. Second, each dimension was operationalized in terms of different teaching strategies and behaviors in order to facilitate
implementation. Finally, a monitoring or record-keeping system served as a

298 / Theeboom, De Knop, and Weiss

manipulation check on the teacher's actual strategies and behaviors. These manipulation checks consisted of videotaped teaching sessions that were assessed by
independent raters, and daily self-reports by the teacher himself to ensure that
the intended and actual behaviors were as closely matched as possible.
The first step was to identify strategies and behaviors consistent with the
dimensions of TARGET for both programs. Although the same wushu techniques
(armed and unarmed) were instructed in both teaching programs, both methods
differed along the TARGET dimensions (see Table 1). In short, the traditional
method emphasized the use of basic drills for practice, the authoritative role of
the teacher, individual exercises, and recognition and evaluation focused on
performance outcome. The mastery method employed more variety in exercises,
shared decision-making between teacher and students, included partner or smallgroup exercises, and focused on effort and improvernenL2
For example, instruction in one of the basic wushu techniques of the forward
leg kick can be used to illuminate program differences. While the traditional
program offered children a limited number of analytical and repetitious drills
(e.g., individually performed upward leg swings), the mastery program provided
a variety of partner and group exercises (e.g., kicks against a ball, the instructor's
hand, or as part of a game). These elements represented variations in the task
and grouping dimensions of TARGET. Because most activities in the mastery
program were organized as partner or small-group exercises, they allowed flexible
allocation of time, in contrast to the simultaneously executed group exercises in
the traditional program (i.e., the time dimension).
Different strategies and expressions were also used in the recognition and
evaluation aspects of each program. For example, in the traditional program a
Table 1 Comparison Between the Mastery and Traditional Teaching Programs
Dimension

Mastery program

Traditional program

Task

Basic movements
Challenge & variety
Immediate use of equipment

Basic drills
Limited no. of exercises
Use of equipment (weapons
after 1 yr of practice)
Analytical techniques
No participant involvement

Authority

Recognition
Grouping
Evaluation
Tie

Complete but short exercises

Creation or suggestion of
techniques, exercises, &
combinations
Effort & improvement
Partner exercises; group performances
Self-evaluation;emphasis on
perceived competence
Developmental skill progressions

Performance outcome
Partner exercises after 4 to
6 yrs of practice
Performance outcome
Extensive skill progressions

Motor Skill Development / 299

correctly executed leg kick resulted in praise from the instructor and public
recognition (e.g., "Very good! Everybody, look at her"); an incorrect execution
resulted in an evaluative response plus corrective instruction (e.g., "No, this is
not good! You must keep your legs straight during the kick"). In contrast, in
the mastery program a correctly performed kick was praised individually, and
information was provided (e.g., "Good work! It's important that you keep your
legs straight"). After an incorrectly performed kick, encouragement and corrective instruction for improvement were given (e.g., "Nice try! And if you can,
keep your legs straight next time. It will work even better"). It was not a matter
of individual versus group recognition with the two methods but rather one of
private versus public recognition of individual performances. In a performance
oriented climate the recognition is public, thereby stressing social comparison.
In a mastery climate the recognition is mostly individually based, thereby emphasizing individual progress and improvement.
Opportunities for children to be involved in the decision-making process
(authority dimension) were also available in the mastery program. For example,
children were encouraged to suggest other combinations of techniques and new
exercises using the specific wushu skills. In the traditional program, children
only followed the decisions made by the teacher.

Measures
Enjoyment. Level of enjoyment was measured through adaptation of two
questions from the sport enjoyment study by Scanlan, Simons, Carpenter,
Schmidt, and Keeler (1993): "Do you enjoy playing sport"/"Did you enjoy
practicing wushu?" and "Do you have fun playing sports?"/"Did you have fun
practicing wushu?" A 5-point Likert scale was used, ranging from 1 = not at
all to 5 = very much.
Perceived Competence. The athletic subscale of Harter's (1985) SelfPerception Profile for Children was used (preintervention)or adapted (postintervention) to assess children's sense of competence in the physical domain and
wushu, respectively. It employs a structured alternative format whereby children
are first asked to indicate which of two children they are more like (e.g., "Some
kids are good at all kinds of sports but Other kids don't feel that they are very
good when it comes to sports"), and then to decide whether the chosen statement
is "sort of " or "really true" for them. Scores for each item vary from 1 (low)
to 4 (high perceived competence). Validity and reliability of this subscale have
been demonstrated by several studies in the physical domain (see Weiss &
Chaumeton, 1992).
Intrinsic Motivation. Weiss, Bredemeier, and Shewchuk's (1985) Motivational Orientation in Sport scale was adapted from Harter's (1981) Intrinsic
versus Extrinsic Orientation in the Classroom scale. This measure includes five
subscales: (a) challenge (preference for optimally challenging skills vs. easy
skills); (b) curiosity (curiosity or interest in skills vs. pleasing the teacher); (c)
mastery (independent mastery vs. dependency on the teacher); (d) judgment
(independent judgment vs. reliance on the teacher); and (e) criteria (preference
for internal vs. external criteria for judging one's competence). Several studies
have documented validity and reliability for this motivation measure (Brustad,
1988; Weiss, Bredemeier, & Shewchuk, 1986; Weiss & Horn, 1990).

300 / Theeboom, De Knop, and Weiss

To assess level of intrinsic motivation among participants in this study,

sport-specific modifications of the first three subscales (challenge, curiosity,
mastery) were used to create four items each. These subscales are considered to
be indexes of intrinsic/extrinsic mastery motivation (Harter, 1981; Weiss et al.,
1985; Weiss & Horn, 1990). The scoring format of these subscales is identical
to the perceived competence measure. Scores range from 1 (extrinsic orientation)
to 4 (intrinsic orientation).
Interviews. In-depth interviews were aimed at getting additional information on children's self-perception and motivational responses. To increase the
chance that children would speak freely, we selected children from both programs
on the basis of their response to an open-ended question on the postintervention
questionnaire: "We would like to know anything else you have to say about the
wushu class this summer. Please write as much as you want down here." All
children who were asked to participate in the interviews readily agreed to do
so. Because the perceived competence and intrinsic motivation variables were
operationalized by the level of agreement with what kind of person they were,
children were asked to indicate how they decided to agree on particular statements
(e.g., "What makes you think you are this kind of kid?"). Although Harter
(1985) has encouraged the use of interviews as a follow-up to self-reported
measures of perceived competence, few studies have done so. Furthermore,
through these interviews more information was obtained as to the reasons for
liking or disliking the program, as well as children's experiences with particular
elements of that program (e.g., "Did you like wushu class?" "Why did you
likeldislike wushu class?" "What did you liketdislike most in wushu class?").
Motor Skill Development. The study's primary purpose was to determine
the effect of motivational climate on children's self-perceptions, enjoyment, and
motivation, However, in a learning environment it is dso essential to assess
motor skill development as inferred through performance. Indeed, one of the
primary goals of a sport skills program in a real-world setting is teaching children
to improve their skills. A program that creates a motivational teaching climate
but does not evaluate whether children are really learning the skills would have
limited practical value. However, we did not emphasize performance per se but
rather the actual skill improvement associated with learning a new sport.
Level of wushu skill was operationalized through performance of the forward jump kick. Each child executed the same technique at least three times and
performances were videotaped to facilitate subsequent scoring. To reduce any
impact of videotaping on each child's
children were habituated to
the presence of the small video camcorder for at least one entire session before
actual recording took place. Also, by videotaping the entire session, including
warm-up, the children were not aware of the evaluation of their jump-kick
performances.
Wushu skill level was measured using a 5-point rating scale from 1 =fail
to 5 = excellent. The evaluation was based on five criteria: fluencv of takeoff
run, height of the jump, quality of leg movement, balanced landing, and intensity
during execution. The rating scale was valid in that it was based on the official
scoring method for wushu competition. Four wushu experts agreed on the appropriateness of these criteria, thereby establishing content validity. The videotaped
performances, which were shown in a varied order, were later rated by two
independent wushu experts who were blind to the purposes of the study.

Motor Skill Development / 301

Procedure
The study was conducted under the auspices of a field-based sports program
directed by the third author. All parents were informed of the nature of the study
via letter and signed an informed consent form. At the beginning of the program,
all children signed an assent form and completed the first questionnaire regarding
their level of sport enjoyment, perceived sport competence, and intrinsic interest
in sport. During the ensuing 3 weeks both groups received daily instruction in
wushu; each session lasted about 40 minutes. After the last session the children
completed the wushu-specific (postintervention) questionnaire, which took no
longer than 20 minutes to complete.
Eight children (4 boys, 4 girls) from each group (mastew, traditional) and
all grade levels were interviewed shortly after their last session. The interviews
lasted about 30 minutes and were conducted in a quiet room immediately after
sports camp or at the child's home within 1 week after the last session. All
children were asked the same questions. However, in order to keep the interviews
as informal and inviting as possible, the sequence of the questions, exact wording,
and type of follow-up probes varied.
Children were told that the interviews were part of the study in which they
had participated. The interviewer, the principal investigator, told them he was
interested in learning more about their experiences during wushu classes. They
were encouraged to be as honest as possible if they had bad experiences, as this
would help the instructor improve his teaching abilities. To further encourage
truthfulness and to reduce the chances of answers being based on social desirability, children were told there were no right or wrong answers. Moreover, as the
interviewer knew the children through his observations during class, he could
anticipate tendencies toward social desirability regarding children's answers on
liking or disliking the program. The interviewer tried to create a friendly atmosphere by starting with more general questions such as sport experiences or
previous martial arts practice. All interviews were audiotaped.
To prevent instructor characteristics from becoming a confound, the investigator served as the instructor for both groups. Other comparative research regarding instruction methods in Asian martial arts have used similar designs (Caine,
1989; Murray, 1981; Trulson, 1986; Weinberg, Seabourne, & Jackson, 1981).
Two manipulation checks were conducted to facilitate and assess the instructor's
adherence to the teaching protocol: (a) an observation of videotaped teaching
behavior by five independent observers, and (b) a daily self-report on his own
teaching behavior. In addition to these manipulation checks, sessions were organized so that the instructor could finish one program before starting with the
other. In this way he could fully concentrate on one method at a time, increasing
the likelihood of consistent behavior.

Data Analysis
Preintervention differences between groups were examined through a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with group as the independent variable
and sport general enjoyment, perceived competence, and intrinsic motivation
(challenge, curiosity, mastery) as the dependent variables. The effect of the
programs was also examined through a MANOVA with the postintervention

302 / Theeboom, De Knop, and Weiss

wushu-specificquestionnaireassessments serving as dependent variables. Ratings

of wushu skill for both groups were compared using an ANOVA.
Because the interviews sought more information on a number of items, we
decided to use a deductive approach to content analyze these items. Such an
approach uses a predetermined set of themes or categories to organize the quotes,
as opposed to an inductive approach that allows themes and categories to emerge
from the quotes. The following themes were used: opinions of wushu class,
perceived wushu competence, and intrinsic motivation in wushu. The focus of
this analysis was on any differences between mastery and traditional groups with
regard to these themes.

Results
Scale Reliabilities
The correlation between the two enjoyment items was high, r = .74 for
preintervention and .92 for postintervention assessments. Therefore these items
were averaged to form composite measures of pre- and postenjoyment. Coefficient
alpha (a) was used to assess internal reliability of the perceived competence and
intrinsic motivation measures. At preintervention, challenge ( a = .75) and mastery
( a = .74) subscales exceeded the acceptable .70 criterion (Nunnally, 1978);
however, the curiosity subscale ( a = .56) was found to be unreliable and was
excluded from the preintervention MANOVA.
The perceived competence subscale initially recorded an a of .62. However,
one item had a low item-total correlation and squared multiple ~orrelation.~
Removing this item resulted in an a of .68. Although this value falls slightly
below the recommended standard of .70 for acceptable reliability, we included
perceived competence in subsequent analyses because of its theoretical significance to the study.
The postintervention measures achieved the following reliability estimates:
challenge ( a = .69), curiosity ( a = .70), mastery ( a = .80), and perceived
competence ( a = .73 with the same item removed). Challenge motivation was
included in the postintervention analysis for the same reason as the preintervention
perceived competence measure.

Group Comparisons: Preintervention

A MANOVA was conducted to ensure nonsignificant differences between
the randomly assigned groups on the variables of interest at the outset. Correlations
among dependent variables ranged from r = .O1 to .55, indicatingthat multicollinearity (i.e., r 2 .70) was not a concern. Challenge motivation showed a moderate
relationship with both enjoyment (r = .47) and perceived competence (r = .55),
while enjoyment and perceived competence were correlated to a slightly lower
degree (r = .39). The MANOVA was nonsignificant, Wilks' lambda = .94, F(5,
113) = 1.48, p < .21. These findings confirmed that both groups could be
considad equal on the dependent variables prior to the intervention. Means and
standard deviations for all variables by group can be seen in Table 2.

Motor Skill Development / 303

Table 2 Preintervention Group Means on Enjoyment, Perceived Competence,
and Intrinsic Motivation

Variable
Enjoyment
Perceived competence
Challenge motivation
Mastery motivation

Mastery (n = 5 1)
M
SD
4.77
3.11
3.33
2.57

0.42
0.56
0.58
0.68

Traditional (n = 68)
M

SD

4.87
3.12
3.34
2.80

0.34
0.54
0.62
0.74

Table 3 Postintervention Group Means on Enjoyment, Perceived Competence,

and Intrinsic Motivation

Variable
Enjoyment
Perceived competence
Challenge motivation
Mastery motivation
Curiosity motivation

Mastery (n = 51)
M
SD
4.83
2.95
3.26
2.68
3.58

0.36
0.52
0.48
0.67
0.47

Traditional (n = 68)
M

SD

4.40
2.89
3.17
2.70
3.38

0.90
0.53
0.59
0.79
0.66

Group Comparisons: Postintervention

Correlations among the five dependent variables ranged from r = .07 to
.67. Curiosity motivation was highly correlated with enjoyment (r = .67) and
moderately correlated with challenge motivation (r = .42). Challenge motivation
showed correlations similar to preintervention with enjoyment (r = .38) and
perceived competence (r = .53). Enjoyment and perceived competence correlated
lower (r = .28) than at preintervention. The MANOVA was nonsignificant, Wilks'
lambda = .91, F(5, 113) = 2.14, p < .066. Because the group main effect showed
a trend toward significance, univariate F values and associated discriminant
coefficients were examined. However, to protect against Type I errors we adopted
a more stringent p < .01. These analyses revealed that children in the mastery
group reported significantly higher enjoyment levels than those in the traditional
group, F(l, 117) = 10.71, p < .001 (discriminant coefficient = 1.13). The effect
size was .48, indicating a moderately strong finding with regard to enjoyment
differences (Thomas, Salazar, & Landers, 1991). That is, children in the mastery
group scored, on average, half a standard deviation higher than children in the
traditional group. Means and standard deviations for all variables can be seen in
Table 3.

304 / Theeboom, De Knop, and Weiss

Motor Skill Development

Interrater reliability was calculated using the intraclass correlation coefficient (R; Thomas & Nelson, 1990). The R of -83 indicated good reliability
between the two independent raters for the wushu forward jump kick performance.
The ANOVA examining group differences on motor skill was significant, F(1,
111) = 11.35, p < .002. Children in the mastery group (M = 3.50, SD = .57)
scored higher on the wushu skill than did those in the traditional group (M =
3.10, SD = .80). The effect size was SO, indicating a moderately strong effect
of the intervention on motor skill development. That is, children in the mastery
group averaged half a standard deviation higher in motor skill performance rating
than children in the traditional group.

Manipulation Checks
Teaching Behavior Observations. Five independent observers were asked
to rate the instructor's behavior to determine whether it was in accordance with
the program being taught (i.e., mastery, traditional). The observation protocol
focused on specific behavioral aspects in which both programs could be distinguished, such as the content of feedback ("Are children recognized for their
effort or for their perj%rmance?"). The level of children's involvement in the
instructional process was answered by the question, "Are there opportunities for
children to become involved in the learning exercises?" The provision of time
flexibility to complete the exercises was assessed by the question, "Is there a
time flexibility for children to complete their exercises?" These items were
directly associated with the behavior related TARGET dimensions of recognition1
evaluation, authority, and time. Reliability among the observers, calculated as
percent agreement, resulted in a mean of 88.6% agreement among raters.
Results of total behavioral frequencies for recognition of effort and performance revealed that the instructor had indeed emphasized effort recognition
during the mastery sessions (62.5%) and performance recognition during the
traditional program (85.7%). With regard to time flexibility, 87.5% of the observations of the mastery program noted that there was indeed enough time for children
to complete the exercises at their own pace, while only 28.6% of the observations
in the traditional group indicated such a time allotment. Agreement was unanimous in terms of opportunities for children's involvement in the instructional
process, with a 100%rating of involvement in the mastery group and a 100%
rating of no involvement in the traditional group.
The protocol also included a question as to the primary purpose of the
teaching style: "What is the primary purpose of the instructor's teaching behavior?" The four possible responses were (a) learning to do the task as accurately
as possible within a short period of time, (b) learning the techniques but also
having fun, (c) only having fun, and (d) none of the above. The purpose of
the teaching style in the traditional program was almost unanimously (85.7%)
described as "learning to do the task as accurately as possible within a short period
of time," while the mastery program (87.5%) was characterized as "learning the
techniques but also having fun." These results suggest that the instructor adhered
well to the intended behaviors required for each group.

Motor Skill Development / 305

Daily Self-Report. While the video observation involved a limited number

of sessions, the self-report analysis data on teaching behavior collected after each
class during the experimental phase resulted in 88 reports. These data enabled
a more longitudinal analysis of the teaching behavior as well as a constant control
for the instructor's adherence to predetermined guidelines. Specifically, the instructor immediately assessed his teaching behaviors on seven items following
each lesson: (a) Did you recognize children for their effort? (b) Did you recognize
children for their improvement? (c) Did you recognize children for their good
performance? (d) Did the children get enough time to complete their exercise at
their own pace? (e) How well did you involve the children (e.g., by asking
questions)? (f) How positive or negative an experience for the children was this
session? (g) How positive or negative an experience for you was this session?
Responses to these questions were answered on 5-point scales from 1 = not at
all to 5 = very positive.
The analysis of these data also showed an overall consistency with regard
to the teacher's intended behavior in each teaching group. While a greater emphasis on recognition of effort, improvement, time flexibility, and involvement of
children was reported during the mastery program, the lessons in the traditional
program were characterized by more recognition of performance, limited time
flexibility, and limited involvement for children.

Interview Analysis
As indicated earlier, the predetermined themes of the interview revolved
around opinions of wushu class, perceived competence, and intrinsic motivation
in wushu.
Opinions of Wushu Class. Children's general opinion of wushu class did
not differ between groups. All had positive responses toward wushu instruction.
In general, children in the mastery group were very positive about the program:
"It is a lot of fun to practice." "It was fun, learning lots of kicks and punches."
The positive reactions of children in the traditional group were less pronounced:
"It interests me." "It's pretty good." "I don't think I like to take classes all
the time but it's fun."
Both groups had similar reasons for liking the class, such as learning new
skills, working hard, and having fun. Almost all children considered practicing
with weapons to be the most enjoyable aspect of wushu class. Because the
repetitive practice of the basic exercises is one of the most important characteristics of the traditional program, children from this group were explicitly asked
about these exercises. Both positive and negative opinions were offered. Some
children said they liked it and added that, because of the constant rehearsal, they
could improve. Other children did not like it: "What I saw was that most of the
kids would get bored." "If we did something different, that would be better."
"I didn't like that because it was getting boring." Despite the differences in
rehearsal of skills, all children indicated they had learned enough, not too little
or too much.
Perceived Wushu Competence. Most children from the mastery group
believed they could learn new wushu skills pretty fast: "If you gave us a new
kick or a new punch, such as off the springboard. After a few tries, and after
watching you do it, I could get it down. Maybe not perfect. You know, in sport

306 / Theeboom, De Knop, and Weiss

some things are not always easy, but these basic moves were easier. So I did
get some of them down." "Some other sports, it takes me a long time, but
basically it didn't take me a long time in wushu." Children in the traditional
group seemed less convinced about their ability to learn new wushu skills immediately: "I don't think I would be good at it right away." These children also
reported more frequent difficulties with specific techniques they had learned:
"About half of the things were kind of hard."
Intrinsic Motivation in Wushu. The interview data revealed that most
children demonstrated a high level of intrinsic motivation to learn wushu. This
finding was based on the fact that both groups of children indicated that they
preferred the challenge of trying out new skills by themselves before asking the
instructor for help: "It's like a puzzle. Unless you haven't even tried the puzzle,
you don't just look at it and say, 'I need some help'." Interestingly, children
who said they immediately ask the instructor for help when they get stuck on a
skill seemed to have different reasons according to the program they had followed.
Children from the traditional group did not seem confident about learning the
skills without the instructor's help: "I don't think I can do it by myself." Children
from the mastery group who indicated reliance on the instructor for help said
they do so because they want to learn the skills immediately without mistakes:
"If you learned it wrong, it is really hard to get it going in the right way."
Most children in both groups preferred to learn difficult skills because they
are more challenging, while easy skills are boring: "I want to do the more
challenging ones, so it keeps your interest peaked and you keep wanting to do
it, because if you keep doing the easy ones then it might be boring." "It is just
more fun if you work." Finally, all children in the mastery group said they
practiced wushu skills because they were interested in learning them. In the
traditional group, this curiosity for wushu skills was less enthusiastic. Some
children from this group indicated that their interest to learn depended on the
kind of exercise they were doing.

Discussion
This study examined the effect of motivational climate on children's psychological and motor development through a comparison of mastery and traditional (i.e., performance oriented) teaching programs in the Chinese martial
arts. Results partially supported the hypotheses and revealed that a number of
instructional strategies can have a major influence on children's enjoyment and
skill development. Although the quantitative data did not provide evidence that
the mastery program resulted in higher levels of perceived competence and
intrinsic motivation, the interview data did provide some support for these predictions.

Sport Enjoyment
The results of the present study revealed that participants in the mastery
program enjoyed the sessions significantly more than those in the traditional
group. These findings are consistent with previous research on enjoyment in
youth sport. For example, studies have revealed the importance of intrinsic

Motor Skill Development / 307

factors such as feelings of competence, development of skills, testing of ability,
excitement, and challenge, as well as extrinsic factors such as positive adult
reactions and experienced levels of enjoyment (Brustad, 1988, 1993; ScanIan &
Lewthwaite, 1986, 1988; Wankel & Kreisel, 1985).
Specifically, the interview data revealed that children were especially attracted to the sport of wushu because of practicing with weapons. The fact that
both groups were introduced to weapons shows that the mere introduction of a
new activity in the program is not enough for enjoying the program. The way
in which the weapons practice was organized appeared to be the most important
factor. While the traditional program focused on individual drills, the mastery
program emphasized partner techniques and free sparring exercises. These kinds
of exercises were described as challenging and exciting, and provided children
with opportunities to test their abilities. The results of the present study are
consistent with the published findings on the importance of a number of intrinsic
sources of sport enjoyment and of positive teacher reactions (e.g., appropriate
feedback and recognition), which were part of the style of the mastery program.

Perceived Competence
No significant differences were found between teaching programs for perceived competence. A possible explanation might be that the experiment was
not long enough to enable the participants to feel competent in wushu. The
interview data revealed that, although most of the children regarded at least half
of the skills as "not easy," all but one of the children from the mastery group
were convinced they could learn new wushu skills pretty fast. In contrast, children
from the traditional group indicated that it took some time for them to learn the
skills. A longer intervention period might have resulted in the mastery group's
learning all the techniques, as they perceived they could, and as a result feeling
more competent in comparison to participants in the traditional group, who felt
they needed more time.
Another plausible explanation for the nonsignificant group differences is
that the salient sources of perceived competence information for this age group
(i.e., 8 to 12 yrs) may not have been available during this intervention study.
According to research on developmental differences in sources of perceived
competence (Weiss & Ebbeck, in press), children of this age group report greater
use of parental feedback as well as peer comparison and evaluation to judge
their ability in the physical domain. Because the mastery program focused on
recognizing and emphasizing personal skill improvement, self-comparison, and
goal achievement, all internal sources of competence information, perhaps the
children in this study did not make effective use of these informational sources
from which to assess their wushu competence. Future studies should more explicitly draw children's attention to these sources of information as ways in which
to judge their progress in skill competence.

Intrinsic Motivation
The quantitative analysis did not support the hypothesis regarding the effect
of the mastery program on children's levels of intrinsic motivation. Because children
were inexperienced with the sport of wushu, they may all have been interested in

308 / Theeboom, De Knop, and Weiss

learning a new kind of activity. Second, while the introduction of weapons practice
in the traditional program allowed the experiment to continue without the threat of
amition, this decision may have interfered with the ability to find quantitative
differences in intrinsic motivation between the two groups. The interview analysis
revealed greater intrinsic motivation among mastery group participants.

Motor Skill Development

No information is available on the effect of motivational climate on motor
skill performance. Recently, however, some evidence has surfaced from the
academic domain regarding pupils' task performance. Parker and Lepper (1992)
attempted to enhance the level of intrinsic motivation in computer programming
among elementary school children by situating the exercises in a fantasy context.
In the treatment class, tasks were presented in the context of simple stories, such
as a child being placed in the role of a pirate in search of buried treasure. The
stories were accompanied by illustrations supporting the fantasy. In the control
class, tasks were presented in the form of straightforward problems. Results
indicated that children in the treatment class were more intrinsically motivated
and that they also learned the computer commands faster and performed better.
In the present study, children from the mastery group were rated higher in
their level of wushu skills (e.g., forward jump kick) than those in the traditional
group. Mastery group children were introduced to this technique in a more informal
way, through games and partner exercises, and the exercises had a more immediate
purpose since they were often linked to another goal (e.g., avoiding a fast-turning
rope, trying to touch a tennis ball in the instructor's hand with one's foot). These
factors may well have had a positive effect on how children in the mastery group
rehearsed the exercises, which consequently could have resulted in their developing
skills superior to children in the traditional group. It is also possible that the greater
enjoyment observed in the mastery group may have influenced motivation, which
in turn could have produced higher performance ratings.

Conclusions and Future Directions

Although the results of this study might suggest that the mastery program
is a more favorable alternative for teaching wushu to children, it is probably
better to refer to it as a more informal and flexible way to teach basic skills in
comparison to the traditional program. With the introduction of more complex
technical skills at a later stage, some elements of the traditional teaching practice
may become more appropriate (e.g., the use of drills, a limited number of exercises, more analytical techniques).
The topic of motivation in youth sport has attracted the attention of an
increasing number of researchers during the last decade, adding to the body of
knowledge on how and why young people become involved in physical activity.
Many researchers have made interesting recommendations on how to improve
the actual practice of youth sports. However, intervention studies aimed at investigating the positive affective and motivational effects of these recommendations
have largely been neglected. The present study represented a step in this direction
by demonstrating that a mastery oriented climate can result in more enjoyment

Motor Skill Development / 309

for young participants as well as higher levels of motor skill performance. More
research could help determine whether these findings can be generalized to similar
and different sport settings.
The present study analyzed the effects of all six TARGET dimensions simultaneously, but it would be interesting to investigate the influence of specific dimensions
or some in combination. The task, grouping, and time dimensions all pertain to the
structure of the classroom per se, while the recognition, evaluation, and authority
dimensions refer to teacher behaviors. It would be interesting to know which dirnensions contribute most si@~cantly to motivational and motor performance changes.
Another important direction might be examining the influence of motivational climate
on at-risk children, for example those low in intrinsic motivation or low in perceived
physical competence. Finally, the duration of this field experiment, 3 weeks for
each group, was realistic given the structure of many summer programs for children.
However, the more long-term effects of motivational climate on children's selfperceptions, motivation, and motor development merit further study from both
theoretical and practical perspectives.

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Notes
'Though randomly assigned, the groups were disparate in final numbers because
more children from the mastery group were absent from class for 3 or more days, usually
due to being away on short trips with their parents. Moreover, with regard to gender,
girls and boys in Grades 2 and 4 were randomly assigned to the two groups. However,
because of small numbers of girls in the 3rd and 5th grades, all girls in these grades were
assigned to the traditional group. Therefore the mastery group for these two grades included
all boys.
adaptation was made with the traditional group in order to complete the
experiment as planned: the introduction to weapons practice. Usually, in the traditional
method the participants are only introduced to the use of weapons after at least 1 year of
practice. Introduction of weapons practice was done to avoid attrition, as pilot testing in
a 1-week sports camp indicated that children lost their motivation to continue the martial
arts class without the opportunity to use the weapons (e.g., cudgel, sword, spear).
3WhileHarter's (1985) athletic competence subscale has been suitable for assessing
perceived physical competence, problems have continually emerged with the following
item, which was eventually dropped in this study: "In games and sports, some kids usually
watch instead of play" but "Other kids usually play rather than watch." This item has
consistently achieved a low squared multiple correlation and low item-total correlation.

Acknowledgments
This article represents a dissertation study completed by Marc Theeboom in partial
fulfillment of the doctoral degree in physical education at the Free University of Brussels
(VUB), Belgium, under the primary advisement of Paul De Knop and the copromotion
of Maureen Weiss.
The authors gratefully acknowledge the individuals who served as independent
raters in evaluating teaching behaviors and motor skill performance in this study, and
thank Tony Berlant for his comments on an earlier draft of this paper.